


Three More Weeks

by aryas_zehral



Category: Stargate Universe
Genre: Gen, character study.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-23
Updated: 2010-09-23
Packaged: 2017-10-12 03:38:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/120347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aryas_zehral/pseuds/aryas_zehral
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While on the planet from episode 13, 'Faith', TJ thinks about her situation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three More Weeks

She closed her eyes and breathed in the cool clean air. The alien sunlight warmed her skin and she could feel the spray from the waterfall kissing her skin. For a moment, just a moment, she could believe she was back on Earth, back home with her father. They were up in the mountains on their traditional vacation hiking trip. She could almost hear her father filling her in on the town gossip- not that he would call keeping her informed gossiping- while he worked on lighting the fire. Or perhaps he was cooking the salmon they'd caught in the river. Maybe even looking over maps and wondering what direction they should go on this time. He never wanted to cross the same terrain as the last time, wanted to keep the trip fresh and new. She could see it, believe it. Almost. Except... Except that it was too quiet quiet here. There were no birds, nothing but the wind to make the foliage rustle, and the few insects that there were here seemed quieter than on Earth and with a drone that somehow was just slightly the wrong pitch. The smell of the plants themselves, the mud and the moss and the water and the decaying plant matter all, similarly, were just not quite right. The spell broken, TJ opened her eyes and watched the falling water glinting in the sunlight.

Hiking with her father was a tradition between them. During her teens and early twenties they had gone on their hikes at least once a year. However in recent years it had become a tradition that had slipped as she spent less and less time at home- or even on the planet- and the amount of time she spent there had become shorter in length. It became snatching a weekend or a couple of days instead of a leisurely week or two. The last time she had made it home for enough days that they might have been used for hiking it had been Christmas and, even if the weather hadn't been unsuitable, her mother and sister would have glared at them for daring to think about not being home for the holidays It had always been that way: TJ and her father on one side wanting to go on adventures and seek out new places to see and new things to try; her mother and her sister on the other championing the simple pleasures of home and family. TJ was her father's favourite- even if he would never admit this, claiming she was his joint favourite daughter, aiming to confound but also to preserve tender childhood feelings- just as her sister was their mothers. She and her sister were not unhappy with this, had both always been assured of their parents love and support. It was a conviction which had served them well as they grew up and matured into quite different people. Her sister's life moved towards domesticity and family, staying in the same small town, having the same sort of small town life that their parents had had. TJ towards career and cities and places where there were new people and new problems and excitement, change, difference. TJ had always been the adventurous one, the ambitious and the fearless one.

Her father had told her she would go far, and she had believed him. She had been cursed with unshakable self-belief before she had been posted on Icarus. She knew who she was and what she wanted. She faced her problems, fought them out, didn't show weakness or vulnerability if she could avoid it. She made plans, thought through her ambitions. She had joined the military so that the military would help with her scholarship for Med School knowing that she could never afford it without their help and thinking that could be a route to adventure while she was still young. That had been the plan and she had followed that plan, applying to the schools and the trusts and the scholarships, even when it became apparent that she loved being in the military. She loved the camaraderie. She loved the different people she met both in and outside the military. She loved the adventure even as she learned that the danger was real and the reckless died young. Somehow she ended up attached to the Stargate program and the next thing she knew she was in space, doing all these things, seeing all these places and technologies she had never dreamed possible. And she liked it. It was exciting. She had never had time for science fiction growing up, had, with childish harshness, sneered at the nerds with her girlfriends at high school and now she was in a freaking science fiction story. She was in the most complicated, difficult, lonely place and the science fiction part wasn't even her biggest problem.

She had always known who she was but even before the Lucian Alliance had attacked, forced their hand, led them to being stranded in this galaxy of no name she had been itching to run. She had found her exit, made her excuses to herself and to other, persuading them that she was simply following her plans not abandoning her core principles. It had almost worked. She almost believed herself and in time she would have without him around to remind her. She had her way out and she had been ready to take it. But now she couldn't. Now she was trapped, stuck in more than one way, and she had never longed to run more. She had never longed to run home to her father and her mother and her sisters, to have her nieces at her side and to be back in her own room, for everything to feel normal again. But she couldn't, she may never be able to. Destiny would have to be her home and she could not put off facing her problems much longer. For this moment, however, while she sat here and pretended, she could try and convince herself that time had paused, had given her a break, had decided that, for a little while, she could put off facing her problems.

She heard a noise, the snap of a twig behind her, bringing her back to the present. She turned to see who it was. A smile brightened her face as she saw Chloe walking out of the treeline.

"Hey TJ, I found something that looks like some sort of potato," Chloe said, smiling, walking towards her. "Can you have a look, see if it looks edible?"

TJ stood, brushing plant matter off her clothing, and straightened. They had three more weeks here. For three more weeks she could take time to come up with a new plan, work out how to handle telling Everett her problems, their problems. Three more weeks to try and help Scott build bridges with the civilians and stop Greer from screwing up any progress that was being made. Three more weeks. A lot could change in three weeks, maybe even for the better. "Sure Chloe, lead on."

**Author's Note:**

> Written as part of a challenge for stargateland on livejournal. The prompt was 'Stop Time'.
> 
> I really need to work on my ability to write dialogue. Anyone have any helpful hints/tips for that?


End file.
